Seeing that Huoyan was effective, Mo Li's hanging heart finally settled for the moment. He threw the burning clothes onto the ground, then placed Zhong Lichun and Wei Dengke, whom he had been carrying, beside the fire. One after another, a large number of bugs crawled out from inside their clothes. Clearly, although Mo Li had held the two of them earlier, his body heat couldn't spread throughout their entire bodies, so there were still countless bugs inside their clothes.
Now that they had the warmth of Huoyan, the bugs could no longer stand it and all crawled out. Mo Li wasn't worried that the bugs would get inside their bodies. Hypothermia mainly manifested as an excessively low surface temperature, while the internal temperature remained high. Since the bugs were so afraid of heat, they probably wouldn't burrow into their bodies.
How long could one shirt burn? By the time Mo Li had laid the two of them flat on the ground beside the fire, more than half of the shirt had already burned away. It would probably be completely extinguished soon. Once the clothes went out, the bugs would swarm back again. With no choice, Mo Li could only continue burning his own clothes. His jacket was already gone, so he took off his shirt as well, rolled it into a ball, and threw it into the fire. With new fuel, the flames flared up again—but stronger flames also meant that the fuel was consumed faster.
Watching his jacket and shirt burn away rapidly, Mo Li felt like crying. He only had a few pieces of clothing on him in total. Even if he burned all of them, how long could they possibly last?
But even if they couldn't last long, Mo Li still had no choice but to keep burning them. Thus, over the next few minutes, he burned his undershirt, outer trousers, and long underwear. In the end, all he had left was a pair of boxer shorts.
Those boxer shorts were Mo Li's last scrap of modesty. If he really burned them, he would be stark naked. Besides, there was so little fabric in them that even if he burned them, how long could they last?
With no other option, Mo Li turned his gaze toward Wei Dengke. That guy still had quite a lot of clothes on. It seemed he could only burn this guy's clothes now. Going over to Wei Dengke, Mo Li tried to undo the straps hanging with all sorts of strange little items from his body. However, he had no idea what held the straps together, and after searching for a long time, he still couldn't find the fastener. He tried cutting them open with his knife, but there were actually special metal wires inside the straps, making them extraordinarily tough. Cutting through them would be impossible in a short time. By then, the fire had once again weakened and was about to go out.
The situation left Mo Li no time to delay. He helplessly glanced back at Zhong Lichun, who was unconscious as well, and bitterly muttered, "Girl, don't blame me! I'm only doing this to keep you two alive."
After saying this, Mo Li began pulling Zhong Lichun upright with an odd expression on his face. He then removed the expedition jacket she was wearing on the outside and threw it into the fire.
The material of the expedition jacket was highly unusual. It was extremely difficult to ignite, being both waterproof and fire-resistant. After it was thrown in, the fire was almost smothered completely. Fortunately, Mo Li reacted quickly and yanked the jacket back out, preserving the fire's continued combustion.
Since the expedition jacket couldn't be lit, the only thing on Zhong Lichun that could burn was...
The fire finally flared up again. At this moment, Zhong Lichun was covered by that expedition jacket. From the parts exposed beneath it, it was clear that the tight-fitting clothes she had been wearing had already become firewood in the flames.
The material of Zhong Lichun's tight-fitting clothes was also unusual, and they burned very slowly. This gave Mo Li ample time. While the fire was still burning, he returned to Wei Dengke's side and began cutting through the straps binding him with his knife. After Mo Li's efforts, the straps were finally severed. He removed them, then began searching through all of Wei Dengke's pockets. His clothes could be burned, but there might be something useful left in the pockets, so Mo Li naturally wouldn't burn those items along with the clothes.
To Mo Li's surprise, Wei Dengke really did have a great many assorted things on him: glow sticks, cold fireworks, a small oxygen cylinder, fluorescent marker pens, a flare gun with three high-burning signal flares, and several small devices resembling cell phones that Mo Li didn't recognize.
After emptying all of Wei Dengke's pockets, Mo Li stripped off Wei Dengke's clothes as well and threw them into the fire. Now, aside from the two expedition jackets that couldn't be ignited, the three of them were left with almost nothing but their underclothes.
Although the fire had been preserved for the moment, how long could these clothes burn? Judging from the current rate of combustion, they would last at most half an hour, perhaps even less. Once the fire went out, the bugs would definitely return in force.
Mo Li had no better solution now. He could only continue searching for things that could burn. What they had left were just three climbing ropes and two backpacks.
Mo Li wouldn't burn the climbing ropes. They would need them to climb back out, so the only things they could burn now were the two backpacks.
Taking the two backpacks, Mo Li opened them and dumped everything inside onto the ground. He didn't have time to check what was in them and simply threw both backpacks into the fire, making the flames flare up even more.
After burning the last things that could be used as fuel, Mo Li collapsed onto the ground in dejection. He then stared blankly at the fire. Everything that could burn was gone, and those things would last at most half an hour. What would they do after that? Was he supposed to carry Wei Dengke and Zhong Lichun out? But the three of them were practically naked now. He would be fine outside, but Wei Dengke and Zhong Lichun would certainly freeze to death. If they didn't go out, he could only choose to head deeper into the cave. But this was probably the Yeti's dwelling. Wouldn't walking in there be walking straight into a trap?
Mo Li was now caught between advancing and retreating, with no idea what to do. Depressed, he let out a long sigh. Then he placed both hands on the ground behind him and supported his body, trying to relax as much as possible. However, when his right hand touched the ground, he felt his palm gradually grow warm, as if he were pressing it against a hot towel.
Turning his head curiously toward the right, Mo Li saw by the firelight that his right hand was actually resting on a rectangular bag. The heat was radiating from inside it.
Picking up the bag, Mo Li opened it and looked inside. His expression immediately turned extremely ugly. The bag contained more than a dozen self-heating pads. These things were divine weapons against the cold; they naturally generated heat when stuck to the body. If he had known he had something this useful, why would Mo Li have burned all three people's clothes and the backpacks?
But regret was meaningless now. Looking at the ashes in the fire, Mo Li felt like crying without tears. He now thought he had been unbelievably stupid! Why hadn't he thought to search through the backpacks first to see whether there was anything useful?
Before you continue